Defined by Jesus

09/01/2024

https://join.com/companies/nextsteppsychology/7306750?utm_medium=social_sharing&utm_source=copy_link

Next Step Psychology and Counselling has a job opening for Administration Support for a Psychology Practice in Norwest in Baulkham Hills (published: 27.02.2023). Apply now or check the other available jobs.

09/01/2024

We have an opening for a FULL TIME Superstar Administration Support Team Member! If you know someone who would be a great fit, please refer them to our job ad here:

Next Step Psychology and Counselling has a job opening for Administration Support for a Psychology Practice in Norwest in Baulkham Hills (published: 27.02.2023). Apply now or check the other available jobs.

21/09/2023

❤️

17/02/2023

Follow us .by.Jesus

                                                         

18/11/2022

It was while treating someone with burnout that I found wonder.

When reading Gordan Parker's book on “Burnout” I was struck with a common theme .. wonder. It came up again and again in people's stories of recovery from burnout. So I started to look into it.

Initially, I had all these questions … what is wonder, why did it help people, what was so wonderful about life anyway? And I must admit, I didn’t get that many answers … until it struck me … it's in the pursuit of wonder that brought recovery … it's in finding what wonderful is to you that makes all the difference.

Looking into each of my children's eyes (they all have my wife’s beautiful brown eyes) is wonderful to me. To hear them giggle and laugh and sing is wonderful to me. The dawn of a new day is so wonderful to me (even to the point where I was following a book saying I needed to join a 5am club … that only lasted a week). It’s wonderful to me to have a meal with friends and family. It’s wonderful to me when a client gets a breakthrough and can see life differently, with fresh eyes. I find wonder when I can hit a golf ball well (I know its a bit nerdy), I find wonder in my faith, I find wonder in hearing a good story, i find wonder in building something (whether its lego or a business), I find wonder in being part of a community (its this last one that caused me to pause because it was out of my community that caused the burnout too! Go figure!).

It’s by pursuing these that slowly the ice melts around our hearts, the loneliness starts to fade away and the warmth of life starts to return. As we are still going through 3 years of a worldwide pandemic, we are beginning to see the fallout of one of our generation's worst life circumstances. But there is hope, wonder, and life within our grasp, there is going to be a better day, and there is wonder in our day-to-day.

One of my clients says that they are refreshed when they are around nature, but they call it … being around nature that is “not created by mankind”, i.e. the mountains, the surf, the sun, and the sand. I can’t get this thought out of my head … being in creation around the uncreated! Love it so much!

30/09/2022

Recently I was in a highly pressured medical emergency situation and noticed on of the staff was highly stressed over the amount of input they were getting, and how many monitors were going off! How many people asking intensely demanding things! And it reminded me that often when it comes to lowering the intensity of life and helping our anxiety, we can breathe our way into healing.

One of the key lessons we teach in sessions is around what we call “Mental Health First Aid”. Now there are many components of this but when it comes to Anxiety often what people are wanting RIGHT NOW is that the anxiety would reduce and … reduce quickly! This is a key part of mental health first aid.

Now often this can connect with it a sense of urgency, panic, and even worry that people may never get out of the cycle of anxiety …. When will it strike again?

Thank goodness that this is not true and that in fact, we can breathe ourselves into our healing.

So when anxiety hits it is using an automatic system in our body to warn us of danger. Now the danger may or may not be actually there … but the body doesn’t care …it will get us into a state of fight, freeze, or flight regardless! The products of these can be huge dumps of Adrenaline (increases our heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen intake and a host of other things) and a huge dump of cortisol (essentially sugars to give us the energy to burn) and gets us ready to DEAL with this danger.

Now essentially this response is an AUTOMATIC response … so how do we bring this down a few notches? Well … we use an AUTOMATIC system …breathing.

See when we practice our deep breathing exercises we are telling our body that there is no lion out to eat us, that the danger we think we can perceive is actually going to pass (or has already passed) and that the automatic self-soothing techniques of breathing can slow our heart rate, calm our HPA system (Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Adrenal systems) and really move us out of that acute phase of anxiety.

We are essentially breathing our way into our healing by learning how to manage our anxiety. Very often clients feel empowered to handle their anxiety when they realize they can breathe through it.

Our Australian Institue of Sport, high trains some of our top Australian Olympians, developed an exercise that we call 4 AND 6 to reduce our heart rate as quickly as possible (they did this so their sprinters could come back to the start line of a 100-200m sprint with the lowest heart rate as possible, and do it all again!).

With our hands on our heads (this increases the capacity of our diaphragm to take in oxygen), we breathe in for 4 and out for 6. We don’t necessarily need to take super deep breaths but just regular and focused. We can practice this for a period of 10-15 minutes (practice this as time goes by), sometimes you may need longer, and see how this can reduce your anxiety in a really practical way.

Hope this helps.

23/09/2022

Sometimes great opportunities or decisions can be presented to us … but it’s not always the best thing for us or our season in life! How do we work out what to do?

The answer can sometimes be getting a multitude of counsellors.

What am I talking about? Getting a few people's thoughts on the decisions in front of you.

Most boards, government bodies, decisions making entities have this principle at their core. (Recently in Australia we had a previous prime minister violate this principle and it wasn’t that great … he also did own it and apologise for it).

So what should we look for in people to give us counsel?

Firstly I love the saying that a true friend is a friend to our future. Someone who isn’t afraid to ask us hard questions and challenge us about what our motives are. These are often rare gems … but worth the time and effort to dig up.

Secondly, peace in our inner person is a great counsellor. How is our sleep? Are we anxious about the decision or opportunity unnecessarily? Sometimes we need to stretch into a new normal but we don’t have to break. Peace is a greater yardstick and counsellor for our individual circumstances.

Having an honest assessment of our present circumstances is often a great counsellor. As raw and confronting as it may be, it is also extremely refreshing to realise our before picture … ie the Picture before a transformation …then we can focus on the vision of who we want to become … and where that opportunity may take us. (This especially works for me with weight loss)

Opportunity cost is also a great Counsellor … will this opportunity eat into our current relationships? Can we sustain this? Are we able to grow and develops as individuals/marriages/family inside this opportunity? What is the real cost of that new fabulousness?

A professional. I’m a bit biased here but getting some outside counsel can be really good to get a refreshing perspective. The amount of times I’ve just been asked to be a sounding board for one or two sessions is amazing. This often can just add a few more pieces to the opportunity/decision puzzle.

So before a big decision, even life and death stuff, get a few people's counsel and see what they think.

I hope this helps today and that the decisions you make have counsel in numbers. I genuinely believe we are not designed to do life alone.

25/08/2022

We will get there!

Follow us .by.jesus